Brief: It's getting hot in here! For this topic we are going to focus on a creature from the deepest depths of hell. This creature has one sole purpose in its existence, war! It is a merciless killing machine capable of unimaginable destruction and chaos. It's origins are up to you, perhaps it is a construct in preparation for the apocalypse or maybe there's some kind of war happening in hell between different realms of hell. Whatever it's origins, you are required to design this monstrosity! Remember that this creature was built for war, any and all weaponry and armour this creature possesses must be part of its anatomy. Think outside the box in this heated round!

Round Requirements: -creature comes from the depths of hell
-this beast is built for the singular purpose of killing things on the battlefield
-any weaponry and armour is part of this creature's anatomy
-minimal accessories are allowed for harnesses and saddles and such if you want

Deadline:Wednesday June 4, 11:59:59 PM EST (GMT -4)

This thread is the WIPs Thread, meant for uploading any wips, sketches, and ideas for your creature's concepts, as well as any crits, comments, reference images, and discussions relating to the topic! Please submit your final entries to the Finals Thread which can be found here, otherwise your entry will not be included into the poll:http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...r-Beast-Finals

If you have any ideas for a future topic for Creature of the Week you are free to add your own ideas and suggestions to the Topic Suggestion Thread!

If your looking for a little inspiration for your designs, we have a good Site Reference Thread available!

I've done a few CHOW's in the last couple of years, but I thought... let's give it a try on COW. Creatures are not the things I normally draw, but I see it as a challenge to try something new :-). Inspired by a new cool tv show I saw last week: Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge. If you like creatures, check it out.

Back to business, here's my first wip, made with an oldschool ballpoint :-)

You're coming up with cool stuff people Some are very hellish, fierce and destructive. Keep it up. I really like your design, Varatera. Not sure I'm agreeing with Shadowren117 that it looks a lot like a Fel Hunter from World of Warcraft. Keep pushing your ideas!

Hellmoth Larvae

Hellmoths are dedicated parents. The fathers flutter their wings above the eggs, keeping them a constant temperature while the mothers hunt for food and fatten up. Once the Hellmoth mother has fed herself enough, the fathers create a heatspike, awakening the larvae. The parents sacrifice themselves as the first meal for their youngs. The larvae then start their own life cycle, devouring rocks and minerals and secrete them into a more rich soil.

However, the demonbreed quickly discovered these species could be re-purposed as living warmachines.
They created giant eggfarms, mimicking the fathers temperature. When war breaks loose, the demons create the heatspike, unleashing thousands of Hellmoth Larvae at the same moment. Hellmoth riders force the mothers to fly towards the strongholds of their enemy, with a swarm of hungry larvae and a trial of destruction behind them. The ability to track their mother once was a beautiful instinct, but is now abused to be the first cavalry of the demonbreed. This leaves the confused and wounded enemy open for the next wave of attackers.

Even when the opponents succeed into killing the larvae, the remains will turn the lands into a giant cesspool, leaving the terrain cripled and unusable for many years to come.

(I'm not really sure if I'll find time to finish this one, but it was a while since I participated in a CoW, and my monsterfeels were tingling. That's also the reason for adding the backstory with the first draft, if I don't finish, you still get my thinky thoughs)

Varatera, I like your start a lot also. But I can't help but remember seeing that sort of creature head somewhere else... Is it derivative of something? It's nagging at me, but I can't remember where I've seen it.

An initial sketch so far, with some other images just for that quick visual stimuli...

Also, people may or may not have noticed but the Winner's Gallery is now up to date, didn't put the borders, because it takes too long to add the border to each winning entry (we're talking over 60 entries) and I figured I might as well get the images up giving everyone some kind of incentive for winning these topics since the stars function is still bugged out for some reason...

Art is not about competing against others and being better than everyone else, but it is about competing against yourself and discovering your greatest potential!

Kritzlof, my 2cents, it's good. Yours is quite different. The only thing it really shares are the sharp scythes raised above it.
This second WIP of yours has really departed from the hellhound look. My vote - keep at it.

Rob - You're killin' it, man! That tail is fucking sweet. I would recommend appraising that area where the ribs are exposed, I'd say you probably don't need so much detail there. It's a weak point in the design, and there's a enough going on elsewhere that you can just let the area be pretty simple.

Thanks, Simon! I was thinking the same thing actually, I'm going to go over the linework again and start working him into a scene in a bit. Your guy is looking sweet in it's own right, almost looks like he's part of the scenery!

blaker: I am allowing minimal accessories, basically as long as any weapons and armour is part of the creature's anatomy and whatever else you add doesn't take away from your design your good to go. I'm not sure how well the cowbell fits in with the creature but hey, 'More cowbell!'

Art is not about competing against others and being better than everyone else, but it is about competing against yourself and discovering your greatest potential!